Reading the dictionary out loud.

Guten ist mir Freude hier meine Damen. Es Herren Abend eine zu und sein. That is just a list of German words in a meaningless order. I am hoping it doesn’t mean anything (bad) but using it as a metaphor for the problem of teaching. Simply a list of words or data gives no understanding. When we teach we need to share words being used in language, not simply their existence. “Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren. Es ist mir eine Freude hier zu sein. And that is the extent of my German.”

The purpose of a presentation is to deliver a message, an idea, a thought, a challenge or call to arms. Facts on their own can be better derived from a book, and usually more efficiently. The role of a presenter is to convert those facts into something of value (the p1) for that particular audience, conversion of the “what” into a “so what”. One of the reasons presentations don’t work is a failure to address this in the very initial stages of construction thinking that volume of facts will carry the day. It’s not about “covering everything” or listing the top 30 most important points or being encyclopaedic, it is about sharing knowledge as a language rather than reading the dictionary out loud.